The invention concerns a stereo surgical microscope having an apparatus for reflecting in information.
Surgical microscopes of this kind are being used and more frequently because they give surgeons the ability to receive additional visual information without interrupting his or her visual contact with the surgical field.
Known reflecting-in apparatuses generally comprise a display and an optical system, as well as a beam splitter that overlays the reflected-in image on the main beam path of the surgical microscope.
The purpose of all known reflecting-in apparatuses is to display the reflected-in image to the surgeon simultaneously with the non-reflected-in image from the main beam path. This is important in particular when the intention is to overlay onto the image of the surgical field images that were obtained from other imaging methods (e.g. computer tomograms (CT) or the like). The goal was always that this overlaying needed to be as accurate as possible (overlaid in correlated or positionally correct fashion) and always simultaneous, so that the surgeon could optimally profit from the reflected-in image information. If there was no need for reflection in, no image was reflected in and overlaid. The only exception was constituted by those superimposed images that referred to patient data other than the optical or spatial data of the surgical area (e.g. reflected-in blood-pressure or pulse values).
The invention is based on a consideration different from the concept of single-point overlay whenever possible. In certain situations, a surgeon will prefer to be able to concentrate (at least for a short time) entirely on the overlaid image instead of simultaneously also seeing the image from the main beam path. In practice, such known situations are resolved by the fact that the surgeon looks up from the microscope and looks at a monitor installed next to the microscope, on which the overlaid image is displayed. Alternatively, he or she also looks at a wall-mounted light box on which the CT or X-ray images are mounted.
The inventor has recognized that depending on the situation, this procedure may be disadvantageous:
Firstly, it requires time;
secondly, it forces the surgeon""s eyes to perform additional adaptation work (switching from a well-adapted view through the microscope to a distant view with, as a rule, a different adaptation requirement); and
thirdly, the view of the monitor or the light box can be blocked at the critical moment by persons in the operating room.
It is thus the object of the invention to find an improvement that eliminates the aforesaid disadvantages and permits a rapid, low-effort view exclusively of the reflected-in image.
This object is achieved by adding a novel stop to interrupt the main beam path while simultaneously keeping open the light path of the reflected-in beam.
The surgeon thus has the capability of switching over, when he or she wishes and without appreciable effort, to the reflected-in image and concentrating on it. In that process, he or she can maintain his or her selected body posture and eye position, and cannot be impeded by persons in the vicinity. Claim 1 recites the invention.